


Garlands and Other Tricks

by SimonBlackchill



Series: Zenyatta and Genji's travels together [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Dialogue Heavy, Established Relationship, First Kiss, Flirting, Flower Crowns, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Genyatta - Freeform, Illustrated, Kissing, M/M, Other, Reminiscing, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, mention of untagged character, outdoors, they're orbs not balls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-07 14:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11625597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimonBlackchill/pseuds/SimonBlackchill
Summary: [ILLUSTRATIONS BYAMB, detailed links in notes] Genji and Zenyatta have ended up on a large field on their travels. The day is peaceful, the sky slightly overcast, and both the cyborg and the Omnic have equipped a playful state of mind for the day - perhaps, even, a bit daring. Location: a field in an Eastern European country, possibly Poland.





	Garlands and Other Tricks

The visor made a thumping sound when it fell on the field, on the soft ground from which tall grass and plentiful flowers grew. In the wind the massive field looked like a fabric that was being shaken from both ends, slowly, before being folded, put in a closet. Genji breathed in the field air and listened to the wind's hissing, how it ran through the blades of grass and the dandelions and the daisies, scurrying both near the ground and over the field.

Shadows drew shapes of clouds on to the field, and Genji's languid eyes followed the movement.

"Late afternoon on an European field in the middle of nowhere was what I did not know I needed," he said and placed his hands on his hips. Behind him laughed Zenyatta, with a kind tone in the laughter and not mocking at all.

"Do we not all need it sometimes? Though it does not necessarily have to be European."

"I loved running through the fields as a kid. But then there were bugs, those ones that make like... That white stuff where they lay their eggs or something?" Genji pictured the scene behind his closed eyes and let his chapped lips form a smile. "If we caught any of that, we would scream like we were being murdered."

"You humans have a primal fear of insects."

"More like primal fear of unidentified sticky stuff on me."

He turned to look at his master, who had spread the broken white cloth from around his hips on to the grass. He hovered on top of it, and he had cut a pile of flowers next to him - white and yellow, in equal amounts. The small pocket knife lay before them. He had not cut the flowers from the same place, but gradually here and there as they had traversed to the middle of the field. He wished to leave no bald spots behind.

Genji had not asked what Zenyatta was doing with the flowers, but now he saw. He brushed his hand through his hair that desperately needed to be cut, adjusted the hair band that held it in a loosened bun. A bun that had been tight, but under the helmet for the whole day it had loosened. He nudged his helmet on the ground with the tip of his shoe and pointed at the flowers between Zenyatta's fingertips, at the weaving motion of his hands.

"What're you making?"

"Something we used to do with my Brother before the awakening."

It sounded as if Genji was supposed to know the answer from that. His brow wrinkled and he let out a confused laughter.

"Alright."

Zenyatta wreathed two dandelions and two daisies at a time. The dandelions he handled had stained his fingers with the white substance that covered their stems. Genji remembered how it felt, sticky and nasty on bare skin. For Zenyatta, and for him now, it was no bother. Genji moved his attention on to the orbs floating around Zenyatta, some of them farther away, circling around some flowers.

"Master, I have a question."

"Perhaps I will have an answer for you, too. But I cannot guarantee it."

Genji lowered himself on the grass in front of Zenyatta and sat in a lotus position. He placed _Ryuichi Moji_ on the grass next to him to not feel discomfort due to its position, and pulled his helmet closer as well. He took a light hold of his own knees and looked into where it looked like Zenyatta had eyes.

"Do you ever lose them?"

"I lost my wallet once, but turned out it was just lost in the folds of my pants."

After a short silence, Zenyatta continued: "Lose what, exactly?"

"Your balls."

"Orbs."

"Orbs, yeah. Do you ever... not find them?"

"I am aware of them at all times," said Zenyatta and took a few more flowers to his hands. "They are separate from me, and yet... They are a part of me."

Genji nodded in understanding. Zenyatta had told him before that he had to simultaneously try to be a part of the universe as well as separate from it. A good meditation sank Genji deeper into the moment as well as made him transcend away from it. He knew Zenyatta used the orbs for channeling his energy, for meditating and for combat, and he knew they were much heavier than they looked as they rolled around in the air, as they floated like bubbles. Genji could only barely lift one of them, so densely were they crafted with heavy metals.

"But have you lost one?"

"Did I not say that I am aware of them at all times?"

"Yeah, yes, but!" Genji lifted a finger and from behind it, gave Zenyatta a diagonal smirk. "You are avoiding the question."

"I am doing no such thing." There it was - the audible smile from the Omnic's words. Whoever had given their voice sample to Zenyatta must have had a gorgeous smile, thought Genji.

"Then answer the question."

"Is a monk not allowed secrets?"

"So there are secrets," Genji said and snapped his fingers. A wind blew from behind Zenyatta, bringing from the field a fresher scent of flowers. The lights on Zenyatta's forehead looked dim in sunlight, but when a cloud shrouded the Sun's rays, they looked brighter again.

"I may have lost one, although only technically. Once."

"Technically? How did that happen?"

"It was truly an embarrassing situation. For I thought I had lost one, and it was here all along."

A bashful tone came to Zenyatta's voice and he brought one of the orbs between him and Genji, all the while threading the flowers together. Genji poked the orb a few times, watched it float in the air and faintly glow with the same blue as Zenyatta's lights.

"I could have sworn I counted to nine every time I tried to find it. Something must have malfunctioned in my system."

"When did this happen?"

"Long time ago. Very shortly after my awakening."

Genji placed his fingertips on the sides of the orb and turned it around in the air. He didn't quite know if Zenyatta was watching him do it, or not.

"They're, uh, beautiful. The craftsmanship is unique." Genji tracked the carvings on the orb with his fingertip.

"Thank you." A short chuckle finished Zenyatta's sentence and he lowered his chin as he said it. Genji squinted his eyes. Was Zenyatta indeed being  _bashful_? Was his master and companion portraying signs of  _shyness_?

"Though..."

There was only one way to find out. Zenyatta would tell him if he was crossing a line.

"...the craftsmanship of you... is... much more beautiful."

Zenyatta lowered his chin even more. He began tying the garland into a circle, attaching the ends together firmly but without damaging the flowers themselves.

"I like how your... fine metal parts glisten. In the sunshine." Genji waved his hand in the air in a descriptive motion, without describing anything in particular with it. His gaze unashamedly wandered to the chest plate and then the lower jaw that had the same lovely golden colour as did Zenyatta's wrists and some parts in his abdomen.

"I like it a lot."

"Thank you, Genji."

"You're one..." He hesitated. But it did not stop him. "...handsome Omnic, Master."

"Handsome? I believe the handsome brother was not me."

"I believe yes." Genji leaned his elbows on his knees and tried to decipher Zenyatta's gestures. He had no facial expressions to interpret, naturally, so his nonverbal reactions had to be observed from everything else.

From the way his lights flickered a bit dimmer once. From the way he had lowered his chin. From the little twitches of his forefingers, and the little upward nudge of his chin. And most of all, the silence during which he gathered the right words to respond to the compliment with.

The silence during which he ended up staring at Genji's smile was only barely a silence, as the field was alive with sound. Wind and grass together played the most natural of melodies, the most harmonious pair of sounds on Earth.

"I apologize for not properly responding to your compliment. It is rude of me."

"It's understandable to be shy. You know, I never thought you'd be like that."

"I was before my awakening."

"Truly?"

Zenyatta laid the garland on his lap. The freshness of colours contrasted greatly against the dirty orange of his pants - the flowers shone with the stained fabric as their backdrop.

"Before the Iris found me, I was a shy young Omnic. I was afraid of both Omnics and humans alike, and talking to anybody was a great struggle. Perhaps it was a manufacturing fault or a programming mishap, who knows."

"You, afraid of talking to people?" These days Zenyatta did barely anything but talk to other people. He would walk to strangers with no hesitation, to ask about everyday business or to talk politics or weather or the cinema or the menu of the restaurant or maybe share a quote he had been reminded of by something on the person's clothes.

Zenyatta's soft laughter vibrated in the air. "I know. It is an old self I barely recognize. The Iris granted me the courage, and the grace of giving every living being a chance of showing their best side to me. How distant that self feels now..."

"I know that feeling," said Genji.

"And yet, young Zenyatta, he is still within me." He tilted his head and now offered the garland towards Genji. "He learned to make these. And he would not have had the chance to feel bashful about a compliment, for he would have been too intimidated by a handsome cyborg like you in the first place."

In a life Genji no longer considered his, he had courted ladies and gentlemen alike with compliments that teetered on the border of aggressive. When he gave many compliments, he did not have to deal with the blush that came with himself being called handsome. Now he had nothing to hide it with, though.

There was no need for the playboy act any more. No need to guard himself with what he had to be, and instead open the doors to what he was. And that was one of the many things he thanked the Universe for.

Genji glanced at the flowers Zenyatta offered towards him. "Hmm?"

"Will you do the honours?"

"Honours?"

"Or will I put it on your head? I will construct another one, I want this off of my hands while I do."

Genji flipped a strand of black hair from his face, blew it off when it wouldn't obey. Then, as a sign of agreement, he bowed forward. From beneath his brow he watched as Zenyatta placed the crown on Genji's head, adjusted the position a few times. The touch was warm, even hot in places. Their physical contact was still, often, very limited, and Genji considered himself lucky whenever he had the guts to even take a hold of his master's hand.

 

 

With the softest of movements, Zenyatta scratched Genji from behind the ear. The touch of the cool, still a bit sticky fingertip sent waves of heat and shivers from the point of contact to every corner of Genji's skull, and even down his neck, and it rippled down his spine. Zenyatta gave a few scratches before pulling his hands away, back on to his lap, and observed the human's silly smile. Genji tried the flowers with his fingertips, but did not dare to move them around too much.

"Well... How do I look?"

Genji could not know what Zenyatta was feeling then. The Omnic lifted his hands, clasped them and curled his fingers around his palms as he inspected his human companion. Genji smiled in a way that made the cybernetic skin of his lower jaw and the scars of the rest of his face twist, and the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes deepened. A few strands of jet black hair with a silvery shade to some of them fell on top of the crown when Genji straightened his back and placed his head in the way of the summer wind. The loose ponytail at the back loosened further, and the black hair framed his face like a fine painting.

Genji quirked a patchy eyebrow, its shape broken by scar tissue. "Master?"

"It fits you."

"Only the girls of our village did these."

"Does it bother you?"

"No. I want to look pretty. Balances out the... You know... cool."

"You do look charming in it. In fact, with your dark hair and the few splashes of colour in your outfit," said Zenyatta and gestured towards the green circles on Genji's shoulders with his hand, "the yellow and white bring an interesting detail to your, hmm, appearance."

"You need one of these too. No way I'm the only one wearing this."

"I am on it as you speak, my student."

And so he was. With light chit-chat as their guide through the progress of the weaving, Zenyatta wove together another crown with a slightly smaller diameter. One crown took him about five minutes, for he handled the flowers with surprisingly firm experience.

"You made many of these?" Genji asked.

"One."

"One? How come these are so good?"

"Genji, I am quite literally a machine. You teach me a trick, and I will never forget it."

Genji waved away a buzzing bug from his ear. Zenyatta sealed the second garland and inspected it all around. He had depleted all of his floral stash, having left behind only two dandelions.

The idea came to Genji simultaneously with a stronger blow of wind that came from behind him, so strong it was he had to hold on to his own garland. The sun peeked from behind the clouds once again, as if telling him to act on a whim.

But he'd never done it before.

"Maybe I'll show you a trick, then."

"What trick?"

"May I put the crown on you first?"

"Please do."

Genji took a deep breath and rose on his knees. Zenyatta bowed a bit forward just like Genji had done earlier. Genji held the garland a bit above Zenyatta's head, determined the angle in which it would look the best. Zenyatta faced him head-on, and the glint of the cameras within the face plate moved a little bit, enough to show. The idea grew in Genji's mind into an unbearable question, something he'd never really asked before.

When he thought about it, really, Zenyatta would not be able to kiss him back. Would it even count as a kiss? He licked his lips and laid the crown on Zenyatta's smooth head, adjusted it to frame his face evenly. Zenyatta's looked more white than it looked yellow, while Genji could swear his own had more dandelions than daisies.

"Is it even?"

"Yes, Master."

Genji descended back to sit on his knees, watched as Zenyatta touched the petals like Genji had before. Genji glanced at the two excess flowers beside him, took them in his hands as he could not bring himself to do what he wanted to do.

"I'll put these in too."

"Where? Is this your trick, Genji?"

It wasn't. It sure as hell wasn't his trick. Genji felt a flush of heat on his neck, even if there was no skin that could become red at all. It spread up to his cheeks and to his forehead, it coloured the skin his receding hairline had uncovered on his scalp more red.

"No."

Genji approached with the flowers and looked at Zenyatta's face a bit from below his eye level. With a slow movement he placed the flowers behind what could have been called Zenyatta's ears - the large screws that held his face plate in place. It made Zenyatta giggle, which in turn made Genji's worn off smile return a bit. He did not remove his hand from the side of Zenyatta's face, he pretended to adjust the flower. The other hand he placed between them for support.

"You are nervous, Genji. I can feel your hand shake."

"Huh?"

Zenyatta spoke slower, with a lower volume and pitch. No one from farther than a meter radius could have heard him speak. "I wonder if you wish to lay a kiss on me."

"Huh?"

"How did I know, you might ask." Zenyatta laughed, again, as if to torture Genji who felt his heart flutter - or rather _slam_ in his chest, like a drum played by an overenthusiastic first-timer.

"I might."

"I did not know. It was but a wild guess without much reasoning behind it. Although I suppose our, ah, physical affection would naturally lead to this."

"I suppose." He could not but follow his master's verbal lead. Fondness and fresh love robbed him of his words.

"I welcome the caress of your lips, Genji." The odd pauses between words Zenyatta recited made Genji wonder if it was nerves. Nervous circuits?

Zenyatta continued. "Although I cannot return the gesture, I am sure I can enjoy it." The cool robotic hand cupped Genji's, pressed it against Zenyatta's jaw. "Because it is you."

"Then I will."

"Show me this trick of yours, Genji."

Genji nodded sharply. "I shall, Mast--"

Zenyatta lowered his chin somewhat.

Genji whispered when he corrected himself: "I shall, Zenyatta."

His gaze fell to the golden jaw, to the line between the grey and the gold, the seam between the two parts. He had thought about it before, felt weird about it, weird and excited, perplexed and eager, willing and doubtful. The wind grew behind him, gave him the push.

He cared not what the lips were like. He would kiss Tekhartha Zenyatta absolutely anywhere, but this was a start. He leaned in, pressed his lips on the metal. The coolness was not surprising. He closed his eyes, Zenyatta gasped and squeezed his arm and hand tighter, Genji saw before his lids sealed that the lights on Zenyatta's forehead flickered, brighter.

It was fireworks during bright day. It was a show only for them, an experiment deemed successful, a mutual nurturing of their acknowledged feelings.

When Genji pulled back a few millimetres, Zenyatta nudged forward, for more. They exchanged no words when Genji cupped Zenyatta's face in both of his hands and leaned fully against the Omnic, pulled him in a loving embrace that made the cooling wind necessary for the heating machinery.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- This fic is full of my and my fiancée's headcanons and character interpretations, such as Genji having long hair, and Zenyatta and Mondatta having been created as a "pair", as actual brothers  
> \- I had such a hard time with the word "dandelion" because I kept on mixing it with the word "daffodil" #justsecondlanguagethings  
> \- If you enjoyed this, go also give a like/retweet/reblog to the artwork(s) my fiancée Amb provided! In the end, I write primarily for her, as cheesy as it sounds. [HER TWITTER](http://twitter.com/little_amb) / [HER TUMBLR](http://little-amb.tumblr.com) / [TUMBLR POST W/ THE DRAWINGS](http://little-amb.tumblr.com/post/163573187727/its-flower-crowns-jumps-on-the-train-that)  
> 


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